Californian truck strike

Drivers at the trucking company Pacific 9 Transportation are demanding wages they say are owed by their employer after working as independent contractors. The truckers want to receive hourly wages and medical insurance as employees, which some trucking companies already provide.

Meanwhile, the port is expecting minimal disruption during the strike taking place on Tuesday 21 July. Phillip Sanfield, Port of Los Angeles, told Port Strategy: “We expect minimal impact, if any, at the Port of Los Angeles.”

He explained that Pacific 9 has just under 100 trucks that are registered for drayage service in and out of the ports.

“In total, there are 14,630 registered trucks in the fleet that serves the complex. While the action of the employees at this company makes a statement in and of itself, the impact of this one fleet provider’s possible shortage of working truckers will not disrupt overall cargo flow at the complex,” he said.

Mr Sanfield added that although this labour action is similar to others in the past year or so, it has no impact on the improvements the port has made with respect to congestion and its efforts moving forward.

The port has been a facilitator between the trucking companies, truckers and labour representatives in an effort to bring the parties together and resolve the issue.

Pacific 9 is reportedly facing several lawsuits related to allegations of wage theft and worker classification which is under investigation by labour representatives.